Why Games Cause us to "Lean Forward!"

Video games provide us with a way to escape reality and help us enter a world full of rewards and endless possibilities. Some people, however, still can’t fathom the reason as to why other people spend so much of their time sitting and playing in front of a glowing screen. What makes them so fun? Why do people bothering with them? Well, that’s what I’ll be mostly focusing on in this blog, so take a chill pill and sit back! And listen (or in this case read) as I talk (or in this case type) about what I believe makes video games so fun, which is the interactive experience they provide to many players. 

To prevent this blog from becoming a 4 page essay, I’ll divide this blog into 2 parts: the first part (the main subject for this blog) will be about the decision-making feature found in most RPGs (Role-Playing Games), and the second part will focus on the in-game relationships (will be discussed in next week’s blog). So without further adieu, it’s time to discuss how games offer a more interactive experience by allowing players to make decisions, which can heavily impact the game’s results.

Decisions in Linear Stories

 

A long time ago, video games like Mario, Pac Man, and a bunch of other similar games are played in a way that feels as though the player is along for the ride, and by that I mean that they technically aren’t the ones ‘driving’ the metaphorical car and are more like the ‘passenger’; the players have no choice but to play the game and to acquire the same results that was originally designed by game developers. For example, let’s look at the famously well-known game, Super Mario Bros.:

As you can see, the player is constantly moving forward and is acquiring the same results in each world they come across, which is to run toward the finish line and slide down that long, shiny pole, but the main reason as to why I chose this clip was to show that the player had no opportunities or choices to do something differently when playing as the famous Italian plumber. 

Courtesy of Admin (Website: Vitamin-Ha)

 

 

Now, I tried to explain this concept to my sister, but she thinks that there are decision that can be made in the world of Mario, such as deciding which pipe to go down into or deciding when to jump or even deciding whether or not you want to kill everything that stands in your path (this part of her statement made me realize why I’m suppose to fear my older sibling)! She’s technically right about that aspect of it, but that wasn’t the type of ‘decision-making’ I had in mind. 

 Decisions in Interactive Stories

I was thinking more along the lines of making decisions that affect both the play-through and storyline of the game, and a great example of this can be seen in Mass Effect:

*WARNING! SPOILERS TO MASS EFFECT AND ENDING! WATCH AND READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!*

 Summary For Video

The video is a bit long, so for those who don’t feel like watching it all the way through, I’ll try to summarize it as best as I can, and to also try to further explain what’s currently happening in the video.

In this scene, it focuses on the Final Battle (the climatic point of the story) as Commander Shepard (the main protagonist) is fighting, along with two fighting companions, to get to the Master Control Terminal of the Citadel (a large capital), where Saren Arterius (the antagonist) is trying to gain control of the Citadel for a Reaper called Sovereign (sorry for all these names and terminology, but essentially Sovereign is the ultra bad guy). Once Shepard reaches Saren, she tries to reason with him to give up and to do the right thing to stop Sovereign (who is controlling Saren after implanting something in him as a way to “upgrade” him). Fortunately, Saren realizes what he’s doing and wants to help Shepard, but he feels that he’s too far gone and commits suicide to not go through with Sovereign’s plans. After Saren’s death, Shepard gets control of the Master Control Terminal and finally has access to the communication channels, where she is immediately contacted by a pilot navigator, whose flying a spacecraft called the Ascension, reporting about needing emergency assistance and states that the Citadel Council (very important political figures that represent the entire race of their species) is onboard. Shepard is then contacted by another pilot navigator, which happens to be her pilot of the Normandy, who reports being with an entire fleet (consisting nothing but humans) and ready to help out the Ascension on Shepard’s orders. 

Explaining the Situation

Some people may think that the most obvious choice to pick would be to save the Ascension space craft and the Council because of the very important political figure-heads that are onboard, but there’s more to it than that. You could save the Council, but by doing so you sacrificing a bunch of your firepower and human lives for 3 people that never heeded your warnings about Saren and his plans for taking over the Citadel from the very beginning. Or another choice you could make is to not help the Ascension and let the Council die, so that possibly thousands or millions of human soldiers don’t have to die and can focus all of their attention on destroying Sovereign, who threatens the lives of all different species across the universe.

This is where making the decision comes to play: save the Council and sacrifice many lives, or let the Council die and save many lives. And whatever you decide to do, will affect the game’s story-line in the Mass Effect series. 

Courtesy of DeviantArt user virak

Why Decision-Making Adds to the Experience

It’s very difficult to try to describe the many emotions that surprisingly arise as you play this game, but they can range from sadness, happiness, frustration/anger, and a bunch of other feelings, and it felt like a rollercoaster. This final decision is somewhat like a test from the game developers (or at least that’s my opinion), to see if players can push aside their emotions and analyze the situation to determine the rewards and consequences of their actions, and this is what I believe makes games very enjoyable and fun, and it’s because of the large amount interaction that the game provides to its players. Instead of being forced to play and follow a linear story, they can decide which path to take and will allow them to play and follow a more interactive story. And by doing so, they feel more a part of the journey that’s taking place and feel challenged when they have to use their minds to carefully make decisions to get the ending that they feel would be very satisfying and that will heavily impact the story.

Okay this blog has gone long enough, and it’s seriously time to end it! So I will end it with a quote from Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad Is Good For You, “It’s not what you’re thinking about when you’re playing the game, it’s the way you’re thinking that matters.” 

Courtesy of VOLODYMYR+GRINKO